


With the Ashes of His Family Under his Fingernails

by PilgrimKitty



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Character Death, Child Death, Fire, Gen, M/M, Murder
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-08-02
Updated: 2012-08-02
Packaged: 2017-11-11 06:29:27
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 941
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/475566
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PilgrimKitty/pseuds/PilgrimKitty
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Peter's thoughts during the Hale house fire.  Dark.  Character death and angst.</p>
            </blockquote>





	With the Ashes of His Family Under his Fingernails

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Saucery](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Saucery/gifts).



> So I read this post on Tumblr: http://schmosby.tumblr.com/post/28463374497 And this is what happened in result. This is a different version than the ficlet I reblogged. Unbetaed.

Peter had been dreaming that they were having a barbecue, and his brother was burning the hamburgers. The smell of burnt meat filled his nostrils, and the heavy heat of the summer sun was getting uncomfortable. He was sweating when he woke up, and realized the screaming wasn't the happy shouts of children playing in the yard. He was overwhelmed from the acrid scent of smoke and the heat permeating the entire house. His eyes were watering and his lungs burned from the smoke.

The house was on fire.

He ran from his bed towards the sound of screaming. It was Ashley he found first. Five-year-old Ashley who was so excited to start kindergarten this coming fall. Her pigtails had disintegrated as the fire traveled up her hair, burning her scalp and her face. Her pink polyester nightgown was melting into her flesh as she screamed. She had been human, one of the members of the family who hadn't inherited the lycanthropy gene. Peter threw his body over her, trying to put out the flames. But it was too late, he already couldn't tell the charred clothing from the charred skin. As he tried to beat the flames off her, her skin tore away in his hands like burnt paper. She screamed one last time before her voice gave out and her heart stuttered and stopped. Her face didn't look human anymore.

People were still screaming. 

"THE FRONT DOOR IS CHAINED SHUT. EVERYONE DOWN TO THE BASEMENT!" Thomas shouted. Peter saw the logic in it: heat and smoke and fire all rose up. If they couldn't get out, maybe they could survive in the basement. Surely the fire department would be there soon. It was too late for Ashley, though, and Peter set the charred body of his niece down on the floor before joining the rest of the Pack downstairs.

"Has anyone called 911?" Mary asked.

"The phone line's dead," Thomas said. "And my cell isn't working. I DON'T KNOW WHY MY CELL ISN'T WORKING."

"Somebody will see the smoke, right?" Mary asked.

"We can only hope," Peter said. His mate, Caleb was there by his side, taking his hand. Peter looked at Caleb and gasped. His mate's face had a large burn. There was a hole in his cheek and white teeth showed through. Peter's sharp vision allowed him to see the flesh already beginning to knit back together.

"It's already healing, don't worry," Caleb said, dismissing the mark. "Let's try and get out through the tunnels."

But they couldn't. Whoever had set the fire had blocked off every exit from their house. The fire was travelling down--whoever had heard such a thing? Fire travelling downwards? Peter had always believed that fire moved up, not down. Unless it was following a path of some sort.

"This is deliberate," Mary gasped, choking on smoke. Everyone's eyes were watering. There were flames in the basement with them. Whoever heard of stone catching fire? The acrid smell of smoke was combined with some other smells, some familiar, some not, but Peter's nose couldn't pin them down because of the smoke.

"Hunters," Thomas said.

"But they have a code," Peter said. "There are children and humans here."

"How did they get in?" Patrice asked, cradling her baby close to her breast. The child wailed and struggled, gasping. He was instinctively trying to shift to protect himself, but he was less than a year old.

"What time is it?" Mary asked. The flames were creeping all around them, and Peter finally identified the strange scent in the basement. Chemicals. It reminded him of the scent of jet fuel in an airport.

"Not long after nine, I think. It's hours before the kids get home from school!" Patrice was screaming at her sister.

They tried to open the basement windows to let out the smoke, but it did nothing. Those who were wolves were already transformed, unable to keep in control in the sheer panic. The flames were everywhere.

Caleb was on Peter. Holding him down, sheltering Peter with his larger body. The Pack huddled together, trying to keep the humans at the bottom of the pile, not wanting flame to lick against flesh that wouldn't heal. Peter wrapped his body around Patrice and her pup, Caleb wrapping his body around Peter's. Peter heard Caleb scream as the flames licked across his back. Peter felt Caleb's lips press against his neck, kissing him goodbye. Caleb had always been the more dominant one in the relationship, of course he would hold Peter down to try to protect him.

~

In the end, they were there for almost 12 hours. The humans died first, despite being sheltered beneath the bodies of their family. Everyone flailed and fought against the fire and each other, torn between fear of fire and fear of being suffocated and desire to protect one another. As the fire raged on, Peter's body tried to heal, tried to repair itself. Even as Caleb's flesh tore away from his body while his heart continued to beat. As Patrice and baby Steve died beneath him, unable to breath through the choking smoke and the weight of their family trying to protect them. 

It was only after the kids came home from school that the fire trucks arrived. Only after the fire was put out that the firemen started sorting through the bodies, assuming everyone dead. Peter was lost in his own mind, surrounded by the screaming and wailing of his family. His dead lover's charred flesh under his own fingernails. 

"Holy shit, this one's still alive!"

Peter wasn't alive, not really. But his heart still beat.

*!*


End file.
